Mideast Leaders Show Support for Abbas as Hamas Releases Tape of Israeli

ISABEL KERSHNER

Tuesday

Jun 26, 2007 at 5:39 AM

The leaders of Egypt, Jordan and Israel met the Palestinian president in Egypt, while in Gaza, Hamas released an audio of the Israeli soldier captured a year ago.

SHARM EL SHEIK, Egypt, June 25 — The leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority gathered at this Red Sea resort on Monday in a show of support for the emergency government formed by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah.

The leaders came together in the wake of the violent takeover of Gaza by the Islamic militant group Hamas less than two weeks ago. In his closing statement, Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister, said that as a gesture of good will, he would release 250 Fatah prisoners from Israeli jails after they sign a commitment not to return to violence.

About 9,000 Palestinians are being held in Israeli jails.

Mr. Olmert also promised to meet with Mr. Abbas every two weeks and to begin transferring tax revenues owed to the Palestinian Authority, as Israel said Sunday that it would do.

But in a move apparently intended to upstage the meeting, Hamas released an audiotape on Monday that it said was the voice of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier captured a year ago in a cross-border raid and believed to be held by the Hamas military wing and two other militant factions. The tape, released on the anniversary of the raid, was the first sign of life from Corporal Shalit since he was taken to Gaza.

Speaking outside the convention center while the leaders met inside, Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Mr. Olmert, said Hamas had shown “how cruel it can be.”

“This is the same Hamas that was part of the government that was fired by Abbas,” she said, referring to the previous Palestinian unity government, led by Ismail Haniya of Hamas.

“Let’s listen today to the voices of moderation, and not be sidelined by the extremists,” Ms. Eisin said. She added that President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, King Abdullah of Jordan, Mr. Olmert and Mr. Abbas had come to “define a moderate agenda.”

President Mubarak said he had called for the summit meeting “with a view to reviving hope in peace” between Israel and the Palestinians, and that he wanted to “unify the Palestinian ranks through dialog.” He said the achievement of “a common Palestinian position” is “an immediate requirement that can bear no delay.”

The concrete steps being offered to strengthen Mr. Abbas and his secularist Fatah movement appeared, at least publicly, to be limited. And they fell far short of what Palestinian analysts say Mr. Abbas needs for empowerment — a resumption of peace talks toward the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

At the end of the meeting, Mr. Abbas called for Mr. Olmert to start “serious” negotiations with an agreed timetable. But while Mr. Olmert said he sees Mr. Abbas as a partner for peace, he did not announce a resumption of so-called final-status talks.

“Many people are not happy with Abbas going to meet Olmert,” Ali Jarbawi, a political science professor at Birzeit University in the West Bank, said in a telephone interview on Sunday. “They are fed up with the lack of tangible results, and are asking what has happened to President Bush’s vision of two states.”

On Sunday, the Israeli cabinet approved the gradual release of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues owed to the Palestinians and withheld after Hamas won legislative elections more than a year ago. Close to $600 million has been withheld.

But it is not yet clear whether Mr. Abbas will be allowed to spend any of the money in Gaza, because Israel says it wants guarantees that none of the money will reach Hamas. Israeli officials said another issue on the agenda was the easing of movement for Palestinians in the West Bank.

Mr. Abbas’s power has been severely diminished by his loss of control of Gaza. “If he comes back from Sharm el Sheik with only the tax money and a few checkpoints removed, he will be extremely damaged in the longer run,” Mr. Jarbawi said.

While Israeli officials say they see Mr. Abbas as a peace partner, they have criticized him for not delivering on promises and are wary of moving too fast. David Baker, a spokesman for Mr. Olmert, spoke vaguely of “moving forward” and “making progress” with the new Palestinian emergency government, which excludes Hamas.

Ms. Eisin said Israel would go “one step at a time.”

The leaders of Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by Israel and much of the West, contend that the emergency government is illegal. On Sunday, Mr. Haniya said, “We warn against running behind Israeli, Jordanian, Palestinian and Egyptian common summits.” He said Palestinians should rely on “resistance and endurance.”

Sharpening the lines between the positions, Al Qaeda’s deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, on Monday called on Muslims around the world to help finance and arm Hamas. His comments were in an audiotape posted on the Internet.

Hamas has sought to distance itself from Al Qaeda, saying in the past that the Hamas struggle was confined to the Israeli-Palestinian arena. On Monday, a Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, reiterated that theme, saying, “Hamas has its own program, regardless of the comments of this group or that group,” according to The Associated Press.

In the audiotape identified as the voice of Corporal Shalit, he says that he is being held by the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, that his health is deteriorating and that he is in need of “extended hospitalization.” He says he regrets the “lack of interest by the Israeli government and the army,” and the lack of a “positive answer” to his captors’ demands.

Ms. Eisin, the spokeswoman for Mr. Olmert, said Corporal Shalit was a “top priority for the State of Israel and the prime minister.”

Hamas is demanding the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for Corporal Shalit. Some progress was made this year, through Egyptian mediators. Now, with Egypt firmly lining up behind Mr. Abbas, any negotiations may become even more complicated.

Noam Shalit, the father of the captured soldier, said in a telephone interview that the audiotape sounded like the voice of his son, but that the content was “clearly written by his captors,” adding, “These are not things he would say without prompting.”

In a newly released video, also apparently timed to coincide with the meeting, the BBC journalist Alan Johnston, who was kidnapped in Gaza on March 12, pleads for negotiations rather than any use of force to secure his release.

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